Well, for the very first time, I spent my two days at the annual South Florida AILA conference sitting in a booth instead on the panel or in the audience.  American Venture Solutions Regional Center, the EB-5 regional center I formed, own and operate and which exclusively structures EB-5 projects backed and operated by the same Forbes 400 folks with which I’ve worked for almost two decades, FINALLY decided to host a booth at an AILA event, and we had a GREAT time speaking with old and new AILA friends.  (Check out the picture of AVSRC Manager Bianca Saltz, MBA and Laura Callava,  LatourLaw Associate Attorney at our new booth). The three of us were busy explaining our current project, Lake Point Logistics (a Florida logistics/trucking company supporting the South Florida mining sector)…

•    Too much $$ at stake so unlikely they’ll kill the program •    USCIS testimony in recent weeks and SEC announcing that EB-5 is a “priority” in 2016 suggests that the upcoming elections aren’t necessarily dulling the debate; the vibe in all parts of DC is “its broken and it needs to be fixed” and I doubt even Related’s lobbying through GT can change that perception, so changes are very likely I think. •    TEA-tightening rules are a given in any new bill but the “reserved for rural” thing ain’t gonna happen •    Tenant occupancy job count will likely be limited, USCIS wants a flat figure, like the 30% they agreed to. •    Price increase a certainty, seems to be that $800k figure is what all sides agree on •    Klasko, like me, believes …

Here I am, scrunched in coach, next to an extremely big and irritated fellow, juggling my laptop on my knees in the bulkhead row, 4 hours into MIA-LAX.   When I land in 1 hour and 20 minutes, I will next climb into another similarly-sized coach seat for the next 15 hours and 25 minutes – hopefully with a more compact seatmate – as I continue on to Melbourne, Australia to visit my son, Alex “Crocodile” Latour. The things one does for one’s children. As an extremely frequent flyer who crosses the oceans on a monthly basis and who has enough upgrade miles to sit up in the cockpit, 22 hours in coach is, well…unusual for me.  But that is not the problem.  The problem, you see, and the reason I will probably be carried off the plane in rigor-mortis-like seated position, is …

It’s been quite a few years since I stopped my “Immigration Insider” blog, and, frankly, it’s been good to NOT share my legal point of few during this period.  For starters, I’ve gone from “U.S. consular officer” to “private business immigration attorney” to whatever it is I am today rather imperceptibly.  Today, my lawyering is limited to two things: protecting the interests of a handful of HNW international clients and running American Venture Solutions EB-5 Regional Center, which I co-own with my infinitely-smarter-than-me, Forbes-pedigree partners. But this new version of my legal practice is hardly an excuse to begin a blog.  Indeed, the number of excellent bloggers discussing both private client concerns and EB-5 matters mean there is little for me to add content-wise to the onlin…

Steve Cantor of Cantor & Webb just sent me an important notice I need to share with you.  Steve is an old friend and among the best international tax experts in the U.S. I’m pasting his message in below, but here’s who needs to read this carefully!: U.S. tax residents abroad — meaning anyone who is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident — who lives and works overseas and has not reported foreign income or assets as required by the IRS AND U.S. tax residents in the U.S. — meaning not only citizens and residents but even a TOURIST whose physical presence in the U.S. has been sufficient under IRS definitions to render their assets on a worldwide basis. Whether you are one or the other, it looks like Uncle Sam is giving you a tax Mulligan, as in a “get out of jail free” card, provided y…

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The SEC’s first truly proactive enforcement effort against an EB-5 project began a little over a year ago (February 6, 2013) when the Commission sought and obtained a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against Anshoo R. Sethi, A Chicago Convention Center, LLC (ACCC) and Intercontinental Regional Center Trust of Chicago, LLC (IRCTC) for their roles in raising approximately $158 million dollars from close to 300 EB-5 investors as part of a fraudulent offering. On April 19, 2013, the Court granted the Commission’s motion to return to investors the entire $147 million of principal that had been frozen pursuant to the SEC’s motions.  The only remaining dispute involved some $11 million in “administrative fees” paid by the investors, which were the only funds remaining to be returned …

Congratulations to our newest Lake Point Capital Partners EB-5 investor from Vietnam, whose I-526 was approved by USCIS in a blazing six months (no RFE, of course.)  USCIS EB-5 team: you rock and we are very grateful for your efforts, aware as we are of the extraordinary workload pressures you continue to face. Late last summer, when our first I-526 petition was finally approved after languishing at USCIS for over 18 months, “jubilation” hardly begins to express what we felt here at Team Lake Point.  I can only imagine what those first approvals felt like for our pioneer Limited Partners, who patiently watched 8 months turn to 12 turn to 18…talk about blind faith!  These days, it seems a new Lake Point EB-5 approval arrives almost weekly, but it never gets old nor is the joy dim…

It looks like the U.S. EB-5 Program is getting an unintentional boost from our neighbors to the North: Canada has just announced that it is ending its Investor Visa program, which has been extremely popular in China and proved an insurmountable adversary to the more encumbered, complex EB-5 investor visa offered by the United States.  Calling the program a failure, Canada announced the closure of the program without much fanfare, stating as follows: “To eliminate the existing backlog, which is diverting resources away from better performing economic immigration streams, the Government intends to return applications and refund associated fees paid by certain federal Immigrant Investor Program and Entrepreneur Program applicants…” According to our Asia teams, this will represent a flood o…